Annual Progress Reports
Annual Progress Report
All continuing candidates must complete a Research Higher Degree Annual Progress Report.
You will be contacted by the Office of Research Services via your student email with advice on how to complete your Report via the on-line Annual Progress Report App (ORSPA) system.
The annual report is a direct signal to your school or research institute and the University’s Research Studies Committee about your achievements, your completion plan and any problems, of any nature that are impeding your candidature.
Progress Reports may initiate your school or institute recommending specific actions where your candidature is not progressing as well as is expected or if progress is considered unsatisfactory. Actions may include setting a series of tasks with due dates and a further review. The school or institute may, in rare circumstances, request termination of a candidature as a result of the Progress Report process. Progress reports are considered if candidates apply for leave or an extension of candidature.
In addition, the aggregated information from all UWS HDR candidates may assist the University Research Studies Committee to review resourcing and policy directions.
Failure to complete and return your report may jeopardise your enrolment.
Australian Postgraduate Awards - Industry (APA/I) candidates must also complete an Australian Research Council (ARC) Report. The Office of Research Services will contact you if an ARC report is required.
The Annual Progress Report includes both a Candidate’s report and a Supervisory Panel report. These reports include:
- a summary of work undertaken in the last 12 months, or since commencement,
- a timeline and plans forward to completion,
- comment on progress in relation to expected completion,
- comments by the supervisory panel.
The completion of the Annual Report Form should not be the first point at which a supervisor and candidate discover there is a problem. If problems do arise, it would be expected that both parties would take active steps to rectify them with the support, in the first instance, of the school or institute Higher Degree Research Director.
The Annual Report provides a medium for documenting problems and failure to do so could be to the disadvantage of the candidature.
The critical thing to remember is that problems within a research candidature are not uncommon and there are resources available that can be called upon to assist, so please use them.
FAQs
There are detailed answers to Frequently Asked Questions as part of the Annual Progress Report App.
IT / Connectivity
The email sent to you from ORSPA has a temporary password - this should be carefully copied & pasted into the password window avoiding having any extra empty spaces,eg. 93jepass93jfdc needs to be copied as "93jepass93jfdc" not " 93jepass93jfdc".
Your UWS student ID number is your Username.
Once you have logged in for the first time, the system asks you to do change your password to something easy to remember.
Unsatisfactory Progress
If, as a result of this process, it appears that the standard of a candidate's work is unsatisfactory, the School or Research Institute Research and Higher Degree Committee shall report this to the Research Studies Committee and make a recommendation for immediate action, which may involve conditional continued enrolment.
In extreme cases a candidature may be terminated. If such action is taken, the candidate may appeal to the Academic Senate, which may determine the matter as it thinks fit.
Confirmation of Candidature
The Confirmation of Candidature is a compulsory requirement for all first year research students, usually completed within the first six months of candidature, but no later than 12 months.
Please review the Confirmation of Candidature Guidelines (PDF, 87Kb) and use the required Cover Sheet (PDF, 35Kb).
